Jeez, get over yourselves peeps. Poor old you, having to schlep all the way to Lewisham - what, a 20 min walk? What an outrage. How will you cope? One minute someone's claiming brockley is the next huge thing because it's near the DLR and Canary Wharf, the next minute someone thinks it's a hardship to walk to Lewisham to get the DLR. And are you all above buses? How about walking?

It is still a disgrace to not bother operating a single train. Southern runs from the South coast so commuters from outside the M25 are essentially unable to get to work, for a week. Replacement bus service from Haywards Heath to Victoria?

The DLR is standing room only from Elverson Road (the second stop) even when trains are running. A no-hoper I would have thought on a strike day. (Showing my age but I recall when there were prolonged strikes in the mid 80s and the whole of SE London aimed for NXG and New Cross to cram onto the old East London Line - just when they were doing station works at Whitechapel where it linked with the underground proper! They had to have the police for crowd control. One young constable "Good morning all you lucky communters! Enjoy your ride on the cattle trucks this morning?" He sounded so cheerful about it that it raised a smile.)

What time Mintness? At 8.30 it's packed and if he wants a seat I drop mine off at Lewisham. (Any excuse for me to drive rather than walk...)

Talking about it this morning it may be a toss up. The DLR could be empty if people don't manage to get into Lewisham from further out to catch it. He was going to see what gives on Tuesday and if need be take buses to Greenwich and walk under the tunnel.

Pretty much 8.30 too, Tamsin, maybe 5-10 minutes earlier. Apparently he just gets very lucky most of the time. Long may that continue! And good point re next week, I don't know what the profile of DLR users is from the Lewisham end but obviously any train-to-DLR passengers will be merrily screwed by the whole thing, so it might not be too bad after all...

What I don't understand is why Southern is not stopping at New X - I can understand that less stops means less signals to worry about but is Sydenham a more important station than New Cross which is an interchange?

The one saving grace is that it is school hols so lots of people off work anyway.

Yes, true, no off peak trains either. I should say that I only really care about weekend trains, those are pretty much the only ones I use and even then only once or twice every couple of weeks. The only real reason I care about cuts in Charing X services etc and the impact of the ELL is my property price. I barely use public transport myself.

M, I was quite aware that the DLR would have been busy. That is perfecly obvious. What I object to is all the whinging when people local to Brockley and Lewisham do actually have other viable transport options. Yes it would have been busy and annoying, but that's kind of the point of a strike. get up earlier or arrange to go in late and work late. The best way to annoy the strikers is to get on with getting to work with the minimum of whinging. Anyway, you don't need to worry about it now.

Sorry anon, you begrudge people complaining about a working week-long strike, which would cause severe disruption to a service which many of them have paid for in advance, which would potentially add hours on to their commute?

No-one said it was the end of the world, but if you've ever so much as tutted at a cancelled train then you're a hypocrite.

Anyway, you don't have to be troubled by their complaints now. Enjoy your Easter.

I think the point here is "viable" and when the rail goes on strike the other options a no longer viable due to massive overcrowding.

Anon - have you ever had to stand on a platform and watch 4 trains / busses go by before you manage to squeeze onto the 5th - making it an hour or more late into work? From the sound of your post you have been lucky enough to escape this misfortune.

Those less fortunate are not able to work from home and often get paid by the hour so time spent wasted in getting to work equals less money in the bank at the end of the month.

Not everyone has the flexibility of getting into work earlier / later either - think child care and peed off bosses who just don't get it!

Bea, I do appreciate what you're saying, of course, and to some extent I was just being provocative. I just think there's not a huge amount of point raising your blood pressure over something you can't do anything about. I have had that experience at brockley - on a normal day, not a strike day, which would obviously make the problem even worse - but rather than stand there tutting and harrumphing to nobody in particular I tend to cut my losses and head to Lewisham, get on a bus or start walking. Or all three. When there are problems on the trains I've found that my ticket has been valid on alternative forms of transport.

Really Anonymous - how novel! The rest of us just stand on the spot until our heads explode with rage and frustration. Thank God you are here to show us the error of our ways - and in such an unpatronising manner too!